Video

Okay, first off, there are two things you need to know about Croatia: first is that it’s a young country, and second is that it’s a small country.

–Two different tour guides

Croatia (克羅地亞) was our second and last stop of former Yugoslavian (南斯拉夫) countries. We took the bus from capital to capital, Ljubljana to Zagreb. Having just come from Slovenia, it was interesting to compare the two. Our tour guides repeatedly pointed out how young the country is, having declared independence in 1991 (and with war ending in 1995). This is important to note, as former president Franjo Tuđman repeatedly referenced the “thousand-year dream” of independence. That is, while ethnic Croats have been living in the area for centuries, they have only relatively recently been able to govern themselves independently.

To the point about Croatia being small, there are about 4M people living here (vs 2M in Slovenia). However, Croatia is shrinking. The story from our tour guides is roughly that many of their peers have emigrated (e.g. to Germany) for better career opportunities, while many of the remaining have stayed behind to take advantage of the growing tourism industry. At least two of the guides were law school dropouts. And while small, Croatia has an outsized coastline, attracting many to its beauty.

It started raining shortly after we got to Zagreb, so we visited the Museum of Broken Relationships, exhibiting a rotating collection of ~ a hundred objects symbolizing various forms of broken relationships, along with corresponding stories. It was quite interesting and touching.

Sights of Zagreb

Given the much longer war in Croatia (5 years vs 10 days in Slovenia), it is understandable that it left a much bigger mark on the country, from the bullet-hole-riddled houses to the war museums and abandoned military bases. We stopped by the Karlovac Homeland War Museum on the way to Željava Air Base. Karlovac was as close to Zagreb as the Yugoslavian army got (~50km away), now famous for the ubiquitous Karlovačko beer (also owned by Heineken).

Our guides then took us to Željava Air Base, which was a $6B air base built into a mountain. It was meant to be Yugoslavia’s NORAD. Since it was designed to withstand a direct nuclear blast, when the retreating Yugoslav army tried to destroy the airbase to prevent its use by Croatia, it remained largely intact. We spelunked through the massive 3.5km of tunnels before visiting the abandoned Douglas C-47 on the way out.

Urban exploration of Željava Air Base and Karlovac Homeland War Museum

After some more sightseeing in Zagreb, we made our way to a charming bed and breakfast. Unbeknownst to us, it was located inside of Plitvice Lakes National Park, which made arriving and departing a little complicated. It was run by an extremely friendly husband-and-wife couple, with a family (and dog). Both nights we feasted on charcoal-grilled mixed meats and fish, while being served shots of slivovitz, or homemade plum brandy.

Our lovely bed and breakfast inside of Plitvice Lakes National Park

Plitvice is the largest national park in Croatia (out of 8). We spent the entire day in the park, walking nearly 17 miles! The park consists of a series of lakes at different altitudes. As the lakes flow from high to low, this gives rise to dozens of waterfalls.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

We then took the bus to Split and spent a night in Diocletian’s Palace. This isn’t terribly notable given that there are dozens of hotels inside of the palace. Tons of well-preserved Roman ruins here!

In and around Split

Per some recommendations, we modified our original plan a bit to visit the island of Vis, which has the distinction of being the farthest inhabited island off the Croatian mainland. It was entirely closed to foreigners when Yugoslavia used it as a naval base and only opened to visitorsin 1989. Oh, and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again was filmed here.

We had a lovely three nights here, where we

  • rented 50cc scooters touring the island, including Tito’s cave, where he hid out during WWII
  • enjoyed the local vugava wine
  • had an octopus peka dinner, one of the signature dishes of the Dalmatia region
  • took a tour to see the Blue Cave of Biševo
  • visited the picturesque Stiniva cove

Scooting around Vis

The Blue Cave of Biševo and traditional peka dinner

There were no direct ferries to Hvar (at least on the days were were looking), so we made a quick stop back in Split. We only spent one night in Hvar on the way to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik (like Split) was very touristy. They also seemed bent on fully capitalizing on the Game of Thrones filming (and Star Wars to a lesser extent) – it seemed as if every other shop sold official GoT merchandise, not to mention several opportunities for GoT photo shoots. See if you can pick out the House of the Undying, King’s Landing, and Blackwater Bay in our photos. Still, the walls and old town were quite beautiful.

Ferry back to Split, picnic in Split, and Hvar town.

Dubrovnik (and some Hvar)

Fish-heavy food along the coast